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A PR Perspective on all things Hip Hop

My Journey to Public Relations

My dream of becoming a “PR Guy”, did not start from just one isolated incident like some would claim, but derived from several experiences that aided in my realization of my true strengths…and also some of my weaknesses.

The earliest of these experiences occurred when I began taking a TV Production course during high school. I was given a chance to be one of the first underclassmen to be an anchor on the school morning show. I realized I had great exuberance when communicating to a large group of my peers which was reinforced by the praise I received from not just students, but also other teachers as well.

While I was in high school I heard that if you could write well, you could get any job you wanted. Apparently those words stuck because I immediately joined both the school’s yearbook and newspaper staffs. I was able to practice my writing while also refining it to the point where I actually started to love doing it.

Midway through my senior year I knew that Mass Communications would be my major of choice. It combined my love of public speaking as well as my passion for writing (and also conveniently excluded having to take those excruciatingly boring science classes.)

Although those experiences developed the framework of what I wanted to do with my life, the light bulb in my head truly turned on during a chance meeting I had while working as a sales associate at a brand retailer.

I learned more about communicating with people while working retail than I have in any college course I have taken up to this point. I had to really develop myself as a “chameleon”, meaning that I could speak and relate to all types of people. Needless to say I became a top seller rather quickly.

After one particular successful sale, the nice lady I was helping offered me an unpaid internship in the public relations division of her company. I was flattered, however hearing “unpaid” and not exactly knowing what public relations was I declined (looking back, I probably should have kept her card….) I went home and started researching what PR professionals did. Networking, persuasion, writing, event planning, public speaking; all of these traits of PR appealed to me like chocolate cake appeals to young, chubby children.

Once I started my classes at USF, my fascination with PR only grew; I was able to meet and speak to many actual “PR guys” through classroom visits and also learned many of the ins and outs of actual PR settings.

Now that I got my feet wet, acquiring an internship is the next step to make my dream a reality, so any firm looking for a passionate young mind who puts their all into their work, feel free to contact me.